Brooksville church blends worship, car culture and community

Inside Pastor Gordon Chip Winans’ garage, a 1956 Chevy hangs in the air while the smell of grease, paint and old metal sets the tone for Sunday worship. In Brooksville, that is not a gimmick. It is the point of Hot Rod Church, a small gathering that turns a working garage into a place where faith and car culture meet without either one having to apologize for the other.

A Sunday service built for the car crowd

Winans did not arrive at this idea from the outside. He had already spent years attending car shows, club meetings and local meets, and he recognized that the people drawn to hot rods and classics often wanted the same thing church is supposed to offer: a place to belong. He had also hosted a Christmas service for hot rodders in 2025, a one-off gathering that showed him the idea could work as an ongoing ministry instead of a holiday novelty.

The setting matters. The service takes place at 8250 Holly Tree Drive in Brooksville, the same address tied to Chip’s Garage, LLC, which was filed in Florida on May 25, 2023 and is listed as active. The garage is not a polished sanctuary with stained glass and padded pews. It is a working space stocked with car supplies, and after the service ends, the congregation spills into the yard where vintage vehicles and their owners can keep talking long after the last prayer.

That relaxed atmosphere is what makes the church distinct in Hernando County. Hot Rod Church does not separate worship from the culture of the people who attend. It places them together, which is why the group feels more like a community built around shared life experience than a church trying to borrow a hobby for attention.

Why the church feels personal in Brooksville

Winans brings unusual depth to the role. He has been a minister for 37 years and spent 27 years in missionary work in the Yucatan jungle, but he also has a long business background and a genuine personal connection to cars. That mix gives Hot Rod Church a credibility that many novelty ministries never reach. He is speaking to people who know the difference between a showpiece and a project, and they can tell when a leader understands the culture from the inside.

His digital footprint reinforces that connection. Chip’s Garage on YouTube lists about 5.66K subscribers and 244 videos, with content centered on vintage, antique, custom, performance and hot rod cars. The channel’s reach matters because it shows the garage ministry is not only local, it is part of a wider network of people already using car culture as a way to tell stories, teach skills and stay connected.

For some attendees, the spiritual appeal is as important as the mechanical one. Roy Tate, a regular, says he reconnected with his faith after meeting Winans at a car show. Tate lost his wife in 2019, and the church gave him more than a Sunday routine. It gave him a reason to keep working on his 1969 Roadrunner and a place where grief, faith and an old muscle car could all occupy the same conversation.

That is the broader significance of the church. Hot Rod Church offers companionship to people who may not feel comfortable in a traditional congregation, especially those who already spend their weeks in garages, at swap meets or under hoods. In a county where isolation can creep in quietly, a Sunday morning that begins with a lifted Chevy and ends with conversation in the yard can matter as much as the sermon itself.

A local car scene that makes the idea fit

Brooksville is not short on automotive gatherings, which helps explain why this ministry resonates here. The Hernando County Auto Show and Swap Meet is scheduled for June 21, 2026, at the Hernando County Fairgrounds in Brooksville. One listing puts gate opening at 8 a.m., the car show from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and awards at 3 p.m., while another event listing shows a June 21 window from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 6436 Broad St. in Brooksville. FLA Car Shows lists free registration for the show, and one source notes spectators pay $10 parking.

That calendar is part of the backdrop for Hot Rod Church. Lead Foot City describes itself as a home for weekly car meets and events in Brooksville and Hernando County, and recurring auto events across the county give residents multiple places to gather around cars, not just admire them. Brooksville Main Street and nearby event calendars also show how dense the social scene has become, with automotive meets fitting comfortably alongside other community events.

The result is a local culture where hot rods are not a niche obsession. They are a social language. That matters for a church built around them, because it means the ministry is meeting people where they already spend time and where conversation comes naturally.

Part of a wider pattern in church life

Brooksville is not the only place where churches are using car culture as a bridge. Clovis Missionary Baptist Church in New Mexico runs a Hot Rod Gathering and presents it as a place for the hot rod community to park cars, eat and gather while still being believers in Jesus. The parallel is useful because it shows that Hot Rod Church is not an isolated experiment. It fits a broader pattern of congregations trying to reach people through the interests that already shape their lives.

In Brooksville, that approach feels especially practical. A small congregation of 30 to 40 people may not fill a large sanctuary, but it can still create a durable social network. For the people who come to Winans’ garage, the value is not only in the worship service itself. It is in the way the service extends into the yard, into the conversations about engines and restorations, and into a sense that church can still be built around everyday community rather than formal distance.

Hot Rod Church is, at its core, a response to loneliness and drift in modern church life. It gives Brooksville a place where a faith conversation can start next to a 1956 Chevy, and where belonging is measured less by dress code or tradition than by whether people are willing to show up, listen and stay awhile.